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Benito Mussolini

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italy – April 28, 1945, Giulino
di Mezzegra, Italy) was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited
with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of
Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by 1925. Mussolini continued on in this role until
he was replaced in 1943; for a short period after this until his death Mussolini was the leader of
the Italian Social Republic.

Mussolini was among the founders of Italian fascism, which included elements of nationalism,
corporativism, national syndicalism, expansionism, social progress and anti-communism in
combination with censorship of subversives and state propaganda. In the years following his
creation of the fascist ideology, Mussolini influenced, or achieved admiration from, a wide
variety of political figures.

Among the domestic achievements of Mussolini from the years 1924–1939 were: his public
works programmes such as the taming of the Pontine Marshes, the improvement of job
opportunities, and public transport. Mussolini also solved the Roman Question by concluding the
Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. He is also credited with securing
economic success in Italy's colonies and commercial dependencies.

Although he initially favoured siding with France against Germany in the early 1930s, Mussolini
became one of the main figures of the Axis powers and, on 10 June 1940, Mussolini led Italy
into World War II on the side of Axis. Three years later, Mussolini was deposed at the Grand
Council of Fascism, prompted by the Allied invasion. Soon after his incarceration began,
Mussolini was rescued from prison in the daring Gran Sasso raid by German special forces.

Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the Italian Social Republic in parts of Italy that were not
occupied by Allied forces. In late April, 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to
escape to Switzerland, only to be captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by
Communist Italian partisans. His body was taken to Milan where it was hung upside down
at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.

Early life
Birthplace of Benito Mussolini, today used as a museum.

Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Emilia-
Romagna. Mussolini was born into a working class background; his father Alessandro Mussolini
was a blacksmith and a socialist activist, while his mother Rosa Mussolini (née Maltoni) was a
school teacher; unlike her husband, she was a devout Catholic. Owing to his father's political
leanings Mussolini was named Benito after Mexican reformist President Benito Juárez; while his
middle names Andrea and Amilcare were from Italian socialists Andrea Costa and Amilcare
Cipriani. Benito was the eldest of his parents' three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige
followed.

As a young boy, Mussolini would spend time helping his father in his blacksmithing.[6] It was
likely here that he was exposed to his father's significant political beliefs. Alessandro was a
socialist and a republican, but also held some nationalistic views, especially in regards to some
of the Italians who were living under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.,[6] which were not
consistent with the internationalist socialism of the time. The conflict between his parents about
religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptised at birth and would not be
until much later in life. However, as a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a
boarding school run by monks. Mussolini was rebellious and was expelled after a series of
behaviour related incidents, including throwing stones at the congregation after Mass, stabbing a
fellow student in the hand and throwing an inkpot at a teacher.[6] After joining a new school,
Mussolini achieved good grades, and qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901.[3][4]

Political journalist and soldier


In 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland to find work and to expand his political horizons.
During a period when he was unable to find a permanent job there, he was arrested for vagrancy
and jailed for one night. Later, after becoming involved in the socialist movement, he was
deported to Italy and volunteered for military service. Mussolini found a job in February 1908 in
the city of Trento, which was ethnically Italian but then under the control of Austria-Hungary.
He did office work for the local socialist party and edited its newspaper L'Avvenire del
Lavoratore ("The Future of the Worker"). It did not take him long to make contact with
irredentist politician and journalist Cesare Battisti, and to agree to write for and edit his
newspaper Il Popolo ("The People") in addition to the work he did for the party.

Mussolini as an Italian soldier, 1917.

In 1915, he had a son with Ida Dalser, a woman born in Sopramonte, a village near Trento.[7][3][4]
By the time Mussolini's novel was printed in Il Popolo, Mussolini was already back in Italy. His
growing defiance of Royal authority and anti-clericalism got him in trouble with the authorities
until he was finally deported at the end of September. He was prompted to return to Italy once
again when his mother became ill. He became a journalist for the socialist newspaper, Avanti!
(Forward!). After initially writing on numerous occasions against the war in the socialist paper
Avanti, Mussolini relented and he and his class were called up in August of 1915 for active duty.

Although his military record was unremarkable, it was without blemish and it has been suggested
that he may have been prevented from moving further along in the ranks due to his ongoing
political agitation in various periodicals. Mussolini's military experience is told in his work
Diario Di Guerra. Overall he totalled about nine months of active, front-line trench warfare.
During this time he contracted paratyphoid fever. His military exploits ended in 1917 when he
was wounded accidentally by the explosion of a mortar bomb in his trench. He was left with at
least 40 shards of metal in his body He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and
resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new paper, Il Popolo d'Italia.

Axis power
Rome-Berlin relations

Il Duce meets Hitler in Venice, 1934.

The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on. While
Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence, Mussolini had little regard for Hitler, especially after the
Nazis had assassinated his friend and ally, Engelbert Dollfuss the Austrofascist dictator of
Austria in 1933. Both movements focused heavily on the state and conquest, though there was
some conflicting views of ideology: while Hitler lauded racialism and anti-semitism, Mussolini
and the Italian fascists did not. Mussolini viewed himself as a modern day Roman Emperor, a
cultural elite and wished to "Italianise" the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build.A
cultural superiority, rather than a view of racialism. The difference was that a culture can be
learned, while a race cannot.

Race! It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing


“ will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today.
[...] National pride has no need of the delirium of race. ”
—Benito Mussolini, 1933.

Incidentally, the British would question even the Germans' claims of "racial purity" by
commonly deriding the Nazis as "Huns", a reference to the fact that Germany was once
conquered and made part of the Hunnic Empire, a mongoloid people. Regardless of some
differences in ideology, Hitler's Nazi Germany had clearly established itself as a formidable
power that was rising quickly in prominence by the mid-1930s and in November 1936,
Mussolini had coined the term Axis Powers to refer to the Rome-Berlin relationship between the
states. Ideologically Italian fascism did not discriminate against the Italian Jewish community:
Mussolini recognised that a small contingent had lived there "since the days of the Kings of
Rome" and should "remain undisturbed". There was even some Jews in the National Fascist
Party, such as Ettore Ovazza who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper La Nostra Bandiera
("Our Flag"). However by 1938, the enormous influence Hitler now had over Mussolini became
clear with the introduction of the Manifesto of Race. The Manifesto, which was closely modeled
on the Nazi Nuremberg laws, stripped Jews of their Italian citizenship and with it any position in
the government or professions. The German influence on Italian policy upset the established
balance in Fascist Italy and proved highly unpopular to most Italians, to the extent that Pope Pius
XII sent a letter to Mussolini protesting against the new laws.

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